rmh3

colebeck

This is a refurb and costs twice as much as my (brand removed) with better specs did. And not even a retina display? Whoever buys this is a sucker, indeed.
edit: removed name of PC manufacturer to avoid conflicts and brand-wars. I just wanted to question the value of this 'deal'.

tjlee0909

colebeck wrote:This is a refurb and costs twice as much as my Asus with better specs did. And not even a retina display? Whoever buys this is a sucker, indeed.

The display of the rMBP is really not the biggest technical change from this older MBP. There are a couple pluses for the rMBP over this model, and the retina display is really one of the smaller pluses in my opinion.

quark613

The non-glare display is only available in the 15" MBP and costs extra. For those of us who cannot abide glossy displays, it's worth it, and more important than retina. (The MB Air is less reflective than the glossy MBP's.)

djames42

As always, the spec whores will come out saying they can buy brand X for half the price. At the risk of dragging out another old cliché, a Subaru WRX is half the price of a European luxury sport sedan and it'll quite possibly get you from point a to point b a little faster. But it will also be less comfortable, have more noise, and less class.

I have this machine (including the HD matte display) - bought it brand new for nearly twice as much as this one's going for. Best laptop I've owned. Honestly, the only thing that ever crashes on it? Windows 7 when running in a VM. And unlike Windows 7, the OS X interface is pleasant to use.

You all keep buying your commodity laptops if it makes you happy. Some of us are willing to pay more for a quality tool we spend most of our day in front of. I've gone back and forth a few times between Windows and Macs since the late 80's. I'm done switching. Besides, I was replacing my PCs every two years. Now I replace my Macs every 4-6 (in fact, I still have a G4 Mini from 2005 running as a media server eight years later), so paying more is a non-issue.

sbchandler

djames42 wrote:As always, the spec whores will come out saying they can buy brand X for half the price. At the risk of dragging out another old cliché, a Subaru WRX is half the price of a European luxury sport sedan and it'll quite possibly get you from point a to point b a little faster. But it will also be less comfortable, have more noise, and less class.

I have this machine (including the HD matte display) - bought it brand new for nearly twice as much as this one's going for. Best laptop I've owned. Honestly, the only thing that ever crashes on it? Windows 7 when running in a VM. And unlike Windows 7, the OS X interface is pleasant to use.

You all keep buying your commodity laptops if it makes you happy. Some of us are willing to pay more for a quality tool we spend most of our day in front of. I've gone back and forth a few times between Windows and Macs since the late 80's. I'm done switching. Besides, I was replacing my PCs every two years. Now I replace my Macs every 4-6 (in fact, I still have a G4 Mini from 2005 running as a media server eight years later), so paying more is a non-issue.

Your post was a little condescending. A lot of people buy PCs for very valid reasons.

For me it's not a matter of money, it's a matter of tool. I can't do things like "ping /t", "pconfig /all or /release or /renew" and just tons and tons of other things and tons and tons of other program choices.

Don't get me wrong. I have and still do love my Macs. But the PC is a better tool for me and for lots of other people.

Heck a Mac is like a Porsche. Porsche makes a great car and even a good SUV. But I live down a dirt road on 14 acres that needs mowing, mulching and tons of other work. As good as a Porsche is a Ford pickup truck is a better decision for me.

danwat1234

Yeah this laptop has 2 year old tech. Notice it had HD3000 integrated graphics. That means it has a Sandy Bridge CPU which is a 2nd gen Nehalem (i3/i5/i7) chip.
3rd gen is Ivy Bridge and in a month or two the 4th gen will be released, called Haswell.

Basically this is overpriced as Apple stuff always is, though the difference in CPU power between Sandy/Ivy and Haswell is minimal, it's mostly integrated graphics improvements and higher clock speeds sometimes.

alkaloid

sbchandler wrote:For me it's not a matter of money, it's a matter of tool. I can't do things like "ping /t", "pconfig /all or /release or /renew".

Since MacOS is natively a flavor of Linux, you may want to look into running "ping" and "ifconfig" in a terminal window. You don't use the same command line switches, but both do the same thing as a Windows box.

In fact, the power granted to a user via the CLI on a Mac is the same as any Linux machine, but it had myriad software options. The only place it's lacking is in games, but who plays non-Blizzard products anyway???

DreamTheEndless

sbchandler wrote:For me it's not a matter of money, it's a matter of tool. I can't do things like "ping /t", "pconfig /all or /release or /renew" and just tons and tons of other things and tons and tons of other program choices.

You don't want a mac because you don't know how to configure networking on it? That's just plain silly. OS X is Unix. You can configure the network from the gui in system preferences, or from the Unix command line.

*And before you start, yes, I said Unix, not Linux, because it's Unix and not Linux.

alanhoyle

I have this machine, matte included, with a couple factory (SSD) and aftermarket upgrades (2x RAM, DVD replaced with HD). Great laptop if you want something with a big, matte screen with some horsepower and want OSX. I've had no problems with mine.

The lack of USB 3 slows down external drives a bit, but that's about my only complaint. You can use FW800, for a bit more speed, but enclosures or complete drives with that are pricier.

The rMBP makes the current new equivalent a much worse value proposition and should only be considered if you can't live without a matte display. (Current coatings make the glossy not as big of a disadvantage on the rMBP, IME,IMO.)

mb93234

alkaloid wrote:Since MacOS is natively a flavor of Linux, you may want to look into running "ping" and "ifconfig" in a terminal window. You don't use the same command line switches, but both do the same thing as a Windows box.

In fact, the power granted to a user via the CLI on a Mac is the same as any Linux machine, but it had myriad software options. The only place it's lacking is in games, but who plays non-Blizzard products anyway???

While you got the command names right, Mac OS X is a form of Unix, not Linux. The kernel is based off of Mach and a lot of the system tools and components are pulled from FreeBSD.

sdbcmr

sbchandler wrote:Your post was a little condescending. A lot of people buy PCs for very valid reasons.

For me it's not a matter of money, it's a matter of tool. I can't do things like "ping /t", "pconfig /all or /release or /renew" and just tons and tons of other things and tons and tons of other program choices.

Don't get me wrong. I have and still do love my Macs. But the PC is a better tool for me and for lots of other people.

Heck a Mac is like a Porsche. Porsche makes a great car and even a good SUV. But I live down a dirt road on 14 acres that needs mowing, mulching and tons of other work. As good as a Porsche is a Ford pickup truck is a better decision for me.

cameronpurdy

sbchandler wrote:For me it's not a matter of money, it's a matter of tool. I can't do things like "ping /t", "pconfig /all or /release or /renew" and just tons and tons of other things and tons and tons of other program choices.

Don't get me wrong. I have and still do love my Macs. But the PC is a better tool for me and for lots of other people.

After spending a few days a year "fixing" my mom's PC -- basically using my vacation time to clean the malware off of her PC that I could have been spending with my parents -- I bought her a Mac. I added Parallels and Windows for the few applications that she needed to run that would only run on Windows. I bought the $99 "go to the apple store any time you want for lessons" option. She hasn't needed my help since.

kpujals

I agree with you 100%! Couldn't have said it better! Except my PCs weren't even lasting 2 years! I've been on a plain jane, bottom of the line Macbook for over 5 years and NEVER had a crash. I recently bought a new MBP but only because I really wanted it My old MB is still reliable as ever! As is true with most everything, you get what you pay for!

adr5

djames42 wrote:As always, the spec whores will come out saying they can buy brand X for half the price. At the risk of dragging out another old cliché, a Subaru WRX is half the price of a European luxury sport sedan and it'll quite possibly get you from point a to point b a little faster. But it will also be less comfortable, have more noise, and less class.

I have this machine (including the HD matte display) - bought it brand new for nearly twice as much as this one's going for. Best laptop I've owned. Honestly, the only thing that ever crashes on it? Windows 7 when running in a VM. And unlike Windows 7, the OS X interface is pleasant to use.

You all keep buying your commodity laptops if it makes you happy. Some of us are willing to pay more for a quality tool we spend most of our day in front of. I've gone back and forth a few times between Windows and Macs since the late 80's. I'm done switching. Besides, I was replacing my PCs every two years. Now I replace my Macs every 4-6 (in fact, I still have a G4 Mini from 2005 running as a media server eight years later), so paying more is a non-issue.

Apple builds a quality product, no doubt. Unfortunately it is not a good value for the money spent. They easily charge twice the price of upgrades. I didn't drink the Apple Kool aid, so I will pass.

frogpelt

sbchandler wrote:Your post was a little condescending. A lot of people buy PCs for very valid reasons.

For me it's not a matter of money, it's a matter of tool. I can't do things like "ping /t", "pconfig /all or /release or /renew" and just tons and tons of other things and tons and tons of other program choices.

Don't get me wrong. I have and still do love my Macs. But the PC is a better tool for me and for lots of other people.

Heck a Mac is like a Porsche. Porsche makes a great car and even a good SUV. But I live down a dirt road on 14 acres that needs mowing, mulching and tons of other work. As good as a Porsche is a Ford pickup truck is a better decision for me.

I don't disagree with the sentiment of your post. There are excellent reasons to not buy a Mac.

However, it shows some ignorance on your part to think that you can't "ping" from a Mac. Just open the terminal (just like running a command window). Ping on a mac is automatically indefinite so no need for the /t option.

smcallah

sbchandler wrote:Your post was a little condescending. A lot of people buy PCs for very valid reasons.

For me it's not a matter of money, it's a matter of tool. I can't do things like "ping /t", "pconfig /all or /release or /renew" and just tons and tons of other things and tons and tons of other program choices.

Don't get me wrong. I have and still do love my Macs. But the PC is a better tool for me and for lots of other people.

Heck a Mac is like a Porsche. Porsche makes a great car and even a good SUV. But I live down a dirt road on 14 acres that needs mowing, mulching and tons of other work. As good as a Porsche is a Ford pickup truck is a better decision for me.

The example of ping and ipconfig are a bit strange. You seem to imply that the PC is better because you can't learn how to use ping and ifconfig (not ipconfig) on the Mac?

ping and ifconfig on the Mac (and Unix based systems in general) are much more versatile than the Microsoft copies.

To each his own, but that was a weird reason to point out why you prefer the PC.

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